Kooman – The Night Rider is the title of filmmaker Jeethu Joseph’s upcoming Malayalam film starring actor Asif Ali in the lead role. The director, who revealed the title on Wednesday by releasing a motion poster on social media, tells Silverscreen India that the film will go on floors by the end of the month.
“We are currently doing the location recce and our plan is to kickstart the filming by the end of February. The film will be shot in places located on the Kerala-Tamil Nadu border, like Palakkad, Marayoor, Pollachi and Kanthalloor,” says Jeethu.
“Kooman – The Night Rider is a thriller film,” adds the director, noting that the script is written by KR Krishna Kumar, who previously penned 12th Man, Jeethu’s upcoming film with Mohanlal. “So Kooman marks our second collaboration as writer and director.”
Earlier, when Jeethu spoke to us ahead of the release of Drushyam 2, he had revealed that a small film with new generation actors was under discussion, with a script by the 12th Man scenarist.
Apart from Asif Ali, Kooman features actors Baburaj, Renji Panicker and Jaffar Idukki. The director says the casting process is ongoing to select the female lead actor and other artists. The film’s technical crew includes cinematographer Satheesh Kurup, editor VS Vinayak, and music composer Vishnu Shyam.
Kooman – The Night Rider is produced by Allwin Antony under the Ananya Films banner with Manu Padmanabhan Nair and Angeleena Antony serving as executive producers.
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Asked about the status of 12th Man, Jeethu says the Mohanlal-starrer is in the post-production stage. In an earlier conversation with Silverscreen India, the director had said that 12th Man is a mystery film whose plot unfolds in 24 hours. He had also revealed that the film will only have 14 characters overall and not feature any song sequences.
Jeethu’s other upcoming film, titled Ram, starring Mohanlal again, alongside Trisha Krishnan, began filming in 2019 but was stalled in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. Shooting for that project is expected to resume by the middle of this year.
Meanwhile, Asif Ali, who was last seen in Kunjeldho, has several other projects in the pipeline, including Kothth, Kaapa, and Kuttavum Shikshayum.